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Annual Research Report 2004

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Annual Research Report 2004 CONTENTS PREFACE 2 INTRODUCTION 3 RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS 4 ACADEMIC DEVELOPMENT CENTRE 7 ACCOUNTING 9 ANTHROPOLOGY 11 BIOCHEMISTRY MICROBIOLOGY & BIOTECHNOLOGY 15 BOTANY 23 CHEMISTRY 30 COMPUTER SCIENCE 35 DRAMA 41 ECONOMICS AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 46 EDUCATION 49 EM UNIT 55 ENGLISH 56 ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS 59 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE 62 FINE ART 67 GEOGRAPHY 70 GEOLOGY 74 HISTORY 78 HUMAN KINETICS AND ERGONOMICS 80 ICHTHYOLOGY AND FISHERIES SCIENCE 82 INFORMATION SYSTEMS 88 INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC RESEARCH 90 INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF ENGLISH IN AFRICA 93 INSTITUTE FOR WATER RESEARCH 99 INTERNATIONAL CHAIR IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP 103 INVESTEC BUSINESS SCHOOL 104 JOURNALISM AND MEDIA STUDIES 106 LAW 112 MANAGEMENT 115 MATHEMATICS 117 MUSIC AND MUSICOLOGY 119 PHARMACY 122 PHILOSOPHY 131 PHYSICS AND ELECTRONICS 135 POLITICAL AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES 139 PSYCHOLOGY 144 RUMEP 149 SCHOOL OF LANGUAGES 150 SOCIOLOGY AND INDUSTRIAL SOCIOLOGY 151 STATISTICS 155 ZOOLOGY AND ENTOMOLOGY 157 PREFACE It is very important that research is encouraged and flourishes at a University. Lecturers who are active researchers and are at the cutting edge of their disciplines are better teachers. There is a high correlation between researchers who receive awards for their research and those who are recognised as excellent teachers. Active researchers attract Master’s and Doctoral students to study under their supervision, and on graduating provide the intellectual capital for a country to be competitive in the knowledge age. Research also attracts scholars from other institutions, the development of exchange schemes and national and international research collaboration. It also enhances community involvement in that this involvement should grow out of teaching and research and feed back into teaching and research. It is gratifying that in a national climate of decreasing research outputs that Rhodes’ research outputs are not declining and are actually increasing. I would like to congratulate and thank active staff, researchers and postgraduates for their contribution to the research effort of the University. DR. D.R. WOODS VICE-CHANCELLOR 2 INTRODUCTION Rhodes University has had another successful year in terms of research activities and outputs in what has been an exciting Centenary year and I would like to add my congratulations and thanks to those of the Vice-Chancellor to all staff and postgraduate students for their research efforts in 2004. This report documents the research highlights and outputs in its many forms during 2004. Research which is not disseminated in this manner is wasted and I would like to encourage all staff and students to continue to publish their research in the most appropriate way. I would particularly like to stress the importance of publishing research findings in subsidy earning journals and of converting conference papers into journal articles where possible. Outputs in accredited journals are one of the principle means by which the University earns research subsidy and increasing the subsidy earned in this way will directly benefit internally funded research activities. In terms of journal publications 2004 has been a very good year with the audited but still to be awarded journal units increasing to 202 units from 165 awarded in 2003. I am confident that this is a sustainable trend and it is particularly encouraging in the context of a national trend of declining research outputs. A particularly successful publication was the special edition of the SA Journal of Science which was dedicated to the Rhodes University Centenary. I would like to thank all of those staff and students who submitted articles for publication in this edition and Professor Barker for initiating and co-ordinating this publication. An aspect of research outputs which remains a serious concern is the continued poor recognition by the Department of Education of publications in the form of books, chapters, refereed conference proceedings and patents. Not only are a small fraction of these outputs accepted for subsidy purposes but to date no feedback has been given in terms of which books, chapters, etc have in fact been subsidised or why the majority of submissions are not accepted. The Department of Education has, however, indicated that such feedback will be forthcoming from 2005. A further, and possibly even more problematic, aspect of recognition of research outputs (and NRF rating) is the inability to assess outputs in the Performing and Visual Arts. Attempts have been made to address this issue at a national level but no solution appears to be likely in the near future. A concerted and unified national approach to addressing the issue of recognition of research outputs other than articles in accredited journals is urgently needed at the highest level if the research efforts in many disciplines are not to be undermined. My thanks once again to all staff and students for their continued commitment to research. PROFESSOR J.R. DUNCAN DEAN OF RESEARCH 3 RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS 2004 has been a year of many changes with the most significant being the loss of our East London campus which has impacted on certain fields of research. The implementation by the Department of Education of the new funding formula has placed more emphasis on the importance of research with the redefining of a research output which now takes into account subsidisable publications and graduated Master’s and PhD students. Previously, Rhodes University received a block grant for research plus publication subsidy which together amounted to approximately 16% of the total Rhodes University Government subsidy. In the new funding formula the proportion granted for research outputs has more than doubled. The result is a significant pressure to increase research outputs. Currently comparisons by various analysts continue to show that we are one of South Africa’s most productive universities and are the leading research institution in the Eastern Cape The research contributions by the staff have been made amidst many demands such as increased student numbers, a very competitive funding environment and institutional restructuring. I would therefore like to congratulate the members of staff and postgraduates who contribute to the research effort of the University. The main tasks of a university are teaching, research and community service and I am pleased to report that Rhodes University researchers and postgraduates have excelled with their research achievements during 2004. The most notable have been: • The recipients of the Vice-Chancellor Awards for research and books were: Distinguished Senior Research Award: Professor Vivian de Klerk (English Language & Linguistics) and the Book Award: Dr Tom Martin (Philosophy) for his book entitled Oppression and the Human Condition: An Introduction to Sartrean Existentialism. The Distinguished Research Award was not awarded this year. • Professor Tebello Nyokong (Chemistry) won the Shoprite Checkers/SABC 2 Woman of the Year award in the Science and Technology category. • Professor Jay O’Keeffe, (Institute for Water Research) was awarded the Gold Medal of the Southern African Society of Aquatic Scientists. • Professor Pat Scott (Human Kinetics & Ergonomics) was awarded the IEA Fellow, the highest and most prestigious award of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA). • The Rhodes University Centre for Distributed Multimedia, headed by Professor Peter Clayton (Computer Science) together with the University of Fort Hare, was awarded the national THRIP collaboration award. The joint recipients were Dr Alfredo Terzoli of Rhodes University and Professor Hippolyte Muyingi, University of Fort Hare. • Sam Naidu (English) received an Associated Commonwealth University (ACU) Split-Site Doctoral Fellowship tenable at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University, and Justin Lupele (Education) received the ACU Commonwealth Scholarship tenable at Manchester Metropolitan University. 4 • Three scientists, Dr Lee-Anne McKinnell (Physics & Electronics), Dr Ané Oosthuizen (Ichthyology & Fisheries Science) and Dr Susanne Vetter (Botany), were nominated for the L’Oreal-UNESCO South Africa Women in Science Awards. • Dr Brett Pletschke (Biochemistry, Microbiology & Biotechnology) was recognised by the American Water Works Research Foundation through their Emerging Technologies XI project for his innovative research. The Water Research Commission selected Pletschke’s research as one of South Africa’s top 10 Emerging Technology Projects. • Professor George Euvrard’s (Education) educational and training project “Ready for Business” was recognised by the American Chamber of Commerce by winning gold in the Education and Training category. The project went on to win the overall Star of Stars Award for best Corporate Social Investment Programme run by a company with US links in South Africa. • Professor Vivian de Klerk (English Language & Linguistics) was elected onto the Council of the Academy of Science of South Africa. • Professors John Duncan (Dean of Research) and Peter Vale (Political & International Studies) were elected as members of the Academy of Science of South Africa. • Professor Peter Vale (Political & International Studies) was awarded the Utrecht University International Medal. • Dr Marc Schaefer (Education) has been appointed the new editor of Pythagoras, the journal of the Association for Mathematics Education of South Africa. • Professor Paul-Henri Bischoff (Political & International Studies) was awarded a place on distinguished
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